Posted on 03/02/2020
Wilbur Clayton Klemm Sr. (1925 – 2020)
Wilbur Clayton “Wil” Klemm, Sr., Captain USN (Ret.) of Ashburn, Virginia departed on his final cruise February 24, 2020, after a brief illness and seventeen days into his 96th year, surrounded by his beloved wife of 72 years, his three sons and a daughter-in-law. Visitation will be March 3rd, 2020 from 10:30 AM to 12:30 PM at Colonial Funeral Home of Leesburg, 201 Edwards Ferry Rd., NE, Leesburg, Virginia. Funeral Mass will follow at 1:30 PM, St. John the Apostle Roman Catholic Church, 101 Oakcrest Manor Dr., Leesburg, Virginia. Interment will be at Arlington National Cemetery at a later date to be designated. Born February 7, 1925 in Ellis, Kansas, the eldest son of Daniel Frederick and Erma Louise (nee Shriner), both educators, Dad, a true child of The Great Depression, survived not only his parents but his four brothers, Vernon Paul (also Capt. USN (Ret.)), Curtis Leroy, Howard Lynn and Gerald Charles, as well. Graduating from high school in Colby, Kansas, Dad attended Fort Hays State College, Hays, Kansas in November 1942 having joined the V-1 Naval Reserve College Training Program (NRCTP) as an inactive Apprentice Seaman. In July 1943 he became an active Apprentice Seaman in the V-12 NRCTP at Southeast Missouri State College, Cape Girardeau, Missouri until June 1944 when he was appointed Midshipman, United States Naval Academy (USNA). A three war veteran of both sea and shore duties, Dad graduated with the last WW II USNA Class of 1948A (June 1947) with an undesignated Engineering degree and married Mary Louise (nee Quinn) on August 23, 1947 in Baltimore, Maryland, then proceeded to establish and raise our family, while instructing at several service schools and going to sea aboard several warships. His first assignment was the light aircraft carrier USS Saipan (CVL-48) homeported in Norfolk, Virginia, conducting test and development trials of carrier controlled approach systems in the Atlantic Ocean with the first jet carrier landings made by the McDonnell FH-1 Phantom, immortalized in the National Air and Space Museum. Saipan was host for Kansas Governor Carlson, his wife and daughter at the Governors Conference in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, conducted carrier qualifications off Pensacola, Florida and transported the U.S. delegation to the Venezuelan Presidential inauguration and back. Dad’s next sea assignment was aboard destroyer USS Haynsworth (DD-700), he later attended Electronics Materiel School, Treasure Island, California and taught gunnery at the USNA Prep School, Newport, Rhode Island. In July 1951 he was assigned to destroyer escort USS Howard D. Crow (DE-252) (named for an Ensign killed on the bridge of USS Arizona (BB-39) at Pearl Harbor, Oahu, Hawaii), then from July 1954 to September 1956 attended Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California where his degree was designated Electrical Engineer. From September 1956 to July 1957 Dad attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) receiving Masters Degrees in Electrical and Mechanical Engineering after which he was assigned as gunnery and missile officer aboard USS Boston (CAG-1), the first guided missile cruiser, during which Boston served in the Mediterranean with the Sixth Fleet at the beginning of the 1958 Lebanon crisis, then the Boston transported the World War II and Korean War Unknowns to waters off the Virginia capes for final selection of the WW II Unknown to be entombed at Arlington National Cemetery. Following a Washington tour at the Navy Department (“Main Navy”) from July 1959 to March 1962, Dad assumed duties as Executive Officer, USS Henry B. Wilson (DDG-7) homeported in San Diego, California and experienced a Western Pacific cruise to the Far East. However, before that assignment he was tasked on temporary additional duty to Naval District Washington as Naval Escort to President-elect Kennedy’s PT-109 crew before and during the Inauguration celebration, riding at the helm of a replica of the torpedo boat in the parade, almost cancelled due to a heavy snow storm, for which he commented was his only command of that type and it had to be on the back of a semi; a video is in the National Archives and for many years thereafter, the family received Christmas cards from the crew. After Wilson Dad served as Program Manager for the Phoenix air-to-air missile development program for the General Dynamics F-111-B program, later cancelled by Congress. Changing his designation from Unrestricted Line Officer to Engineering Duty Officer at Mom’s insistence so as to be home more often, he was then assigned as Naval Plant Representative, General Dynamics, Pomona, California overseeing development and production of the Navy’s Standard Missile 1, still in use; followed by a second Washington tour from July 1966 to June 1972, then assignment as Commanding Officer, Naval Ordnance Station, Louisville, Kentucky from June 1972 to July 1975 and his “twilight” assignment before retiring in February 1978 and 35 years of active service, as Inspector General, Naval Sea Systems Command (largest of the Navy’s “systems commands”), then located in Crystal City/Arlington, Virginia. Following his naval retirement, Dad learned computer programming technology and worked for a government contractor, Unified Industries Incorporated (UII) in Springfield, Virginia, supporting the Ohio Class nuclear ballistic missile submarine program until retiring a second time in 1988 and relocating in 1989 to Olathe, Kansas; until 2013, when Mom and Dad returned to Northern Virginia and Ashby Ponds in Ashburn. Over the years Dad’s hobbies included HO model railroading, golf, bowling, family genealogy and watching the Kansas City Chiefs and NASCAR (fellow Kansan, journeyman Clint Bowyer, No. 14, his favorite). In addition to his wife Mary Lou, Dad is survived by his five children, son W. Clayton Jr., Springfield, Virginia, daughters Mary Gail spouse of Dr. Davy Joe Harkins D.V.M., El Dorado, Kansas and Donna Lee widow of Dean Brown, Burlingham, New York, son Bruce Patrick life partner of Michele Chamberlain, Ashburn, Virginia, son Daniel Robert Sr. wife Karen, Leesburg, Virginia, 17 grandchildren, 25 great-grandchildren and 2 great-great grandchildren, the most recent born January 18, 2020. In lieu of flowers it was Dad’s expressed request that any memorial donations be made to The American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars of the U.S. (VFW) or Disabled American Veterans (DAV).
https://www.legacy.com/amp/obituaries/Batesville/195535894